A friend of mine, who once grew an accounting firm from four million to 400 million annual revenue, recently told me that an important epiphany for him was the day he realized that he was actually in the recruiting business, not the accounting business.  Yes, his company provided accounting services and always needed to provide top notch and often specialized services.  But in order to do this, he realized his company had to be exceptional at recruiting.

He realized that if his company focused on the goal of being the best recruiter in the accounting business, they would rise above and beat out their competition.

I don’t know about you, but that gave me goose pimples!  How insightful and how true.

What business are you really in?  I know that many of you are our clients – And most of our clients are in the “Real Estate” business.  But is this really your primary business?  What separates you from your competition?  I suspect, more often than not, the most successful Real Estate companies are not so coincidentally, also the best recruiters.

So what is good recruiting in Real Estate?

Is it waiting for people to knock on your door?  Believe it or not that is what many companies really do.

Is it going after the lowest hanging fruit in your pipeline; the ones that you only have to call once?  Again, many Real Estate companies operate with this focus.

If you are only accepting people who take little effort to recruit, you’re going to get the most desperate people.  Is this really how you want to define the core of your business?

Here is a analogy we can all appreciate:  When you were dating, did you only date people who approached you, or did you pursue someone, or at least flirt with someone, that you had your eye on?  If you waited to be asked, you might have settled…  Generally the pursuit is well worth the work.

The most talented candidate for any given job is out there doing something else right now.  They are doing a very good job and they are not desperate, and more than likely, they are not actively looking for work.  To entice those individuals to join your team will take time, patience, creativity, and persistence (not to mention a well-run system to track the pipeline).

So, get your team together, and make sure that you are in agreement regarding your key business and how you’ll pursue the best talent out there…